East Warrnambool had few standouts in a match it genuinely had hope of winning, although the third-term effort showed the Bombers’ potential.

Defender Simon Tindall was their best running out of defence while ruckman Jordan Collins worked tirelessly against bigger-bodied opponents.

Onballers Ash Sumner, a catalyst after half-time while Chris Edwards and Blake Rudland-Castles also found plenty of the ball.

Peter Shepherd and Ben Gray kicked five goals between them and also worked hard, but the contributors dropped away sharply after that. East Warrnambool coach Paul Butters said the third-term effort ensured his side took a positive from an otherwise disappointing day.

“The intensity wasn’t there. We had a focus on the start, we wanted to start well and we didn’t execute it,” he said.

“In the rooms before the game felt good. But we’re getting a tendency to go back into our shells.”

Butters said he would take the good and the bad from the match back to his players at training during the week.

“You look at both, why you were so bad in the first half, what were some of the things that went wrong,” he said.

“Then you look at the good things you did. You’ve got to work with the positives just as much as the negatives.”